Parts of North Texas could see a little bit of rain this evening, according to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologist Jason Dunn said areas east of DFW will get the most rain from the scattered showers and thunderstorms. North Texas will likely get a little less than a quarter of an inch of rain, he said.

“This is really just kind of typical summertime stuff,” he said.

Dunn said winds could reach 40-50 mph in some areas. Sulphur Springs recorded a gust of 47 mph.

The storms are expected to weaken by the time the sun goes down around 8:30 p.m., Dunn said.

Beverly Wright, the former chair of the once-popular Dallas Dinner Table, is working to revive the annual suppers that brought diverse people together to improve race relations across Dallas-Fort Worth.

The last such supper was held in 2009, and Wright hopes to start them up again next year.

“There is a passion among many of those that participated in the past, and others that just heard
about DDT, that think it is important to offer DDT again,” Wright said.

“There is a real need to continue the conversations about race and how it impacts
us all even if we choose to pretend it does not,” she said. “Without
acknowledging it, we will find it even more difficult to effect real
change our communities related to race.”

The Dallas Dinner Table was created by the Leadership Dallas Alumni Board in 1999, Wright said. The first pilot dinner was held the following year.

The concept was turned into a nonprofit in 2001, and the first community dinners were held in 2002. Each year, the dinners grew more sprawling and popular, stretching the nonprofit beyond its organizational capacity.

Between 2002 and 2009, more than 5,000 people participated as either dinner hosts, facilitators or participants, Wright said.

“We stopped having the event a few years ago because our all volunteer support team could not
keep pace the growth,” Wright said.

In the early years, the dinners were staged on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.

“In later years,” in part to avoid wintry weather that hurt attendance a time or two, “it was moved to later in the year and attendance dropped somewhat.”

Since Wright retired last April and started her own coaching-consulting business, she’s been plotting to restart the dinners. And she tentatively is planning to link them to the MLK Jr. Holiday again.

“I retired last April after 38 years with IBM and a great career and am now embarking on an effort to revive DDT with a model that has a stronger foundation to sustain it,” she said.

The Wright Choice Group is hosting a reception Friday at which Wright will officially announce her effort. If you want more information or want to help, contact Wright at coachbev@wrightchoicegroup.com.

North Texas will feel a cold front blow in Friday night dropping temperatures throughout the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologist Dan Huckaby said today and Thursday will be warm, with highs in the mid-to-upper 80s and sunny skies. Friday will be a bit cooler with a high of 84 but the temperature will drop to the high-50s when the sun sets.

“Then, it’ll be another cloudy, kind of dreary weekend,” Huckaby said. “But probably not as much rain as last weekend.”

So, bundle up if you’re heading to the State Fair of Texas this weekend. There’s a 20 percent chance of rain both Friday and Saturday nights and a 30 percent chance Saturday during the day. The high for Saturday during the day is in the low-60s and the low at night will be in the upper-40s.

Maybe it’s a sign of a colder winter, as staff writer Michael Young reported in this morning’s metro section. Monday might certainly be an indication. Huckaby said we’ll see our coldest morning of the year on Monday with temperatures in the 40s and even high-30s in parts of North Texas.

In a column today I expressed my distaste for the offical location name of our Super Bowl — “North Texas.”

I understand and applaud the desire to make this a regional event. But we already have a perfectly good name for this region: “Dallas-Fort Worth.” And It’s a name with plenty of brand identity and a little pizazz, unlike the tepid “North Texas.”